Imagine an alternative London with a black woman Mayor under heavy pressure. I did.
Please forgive me for plugging my pseudonymous novel here, but I honestly think you might enjoy it.
As well as writing journalism about London I also write sketches of life in the city under the pen name John Vane. As John, I have also written and published a London novel: Frightgeist: A Tall Tale of Fearful Times. I would love you to buy a copy. Why should you? Try these reasons for size:
The London Society’s reviewer said: “From the first page, the story cracks along at pace, flirting with the unbelievable and then coming back down to earth in the real politics of London. Frightgeist is simply a cracking yarn [with] a sense of anxiety about what is real and unreal in the city, its places and its politics, from beginning to end.”
Yes, that’s right. I wanted to create an imaginary London and mayoral election contest against a backdrop of fictional traumatic events not dissimilar to real ones that have battered London in recent years - plagues, disasters, protests - using satire, exaggeration and absurdity to help make sense of them and what they have revealed about the city and the times in which we live.
When the mayoralty was created, some hoped it would attract people who aren’t politicians to seek election and win. What kind of person would that need to be? In what set of circumstances could they become true contenders? I’ve invented an Independent candidate with the fame, common touch and winning way with bullshit to mount a serious challenge. His name is Aloysius St Devine, better known as The Saint. He sings and does ballroom dancing, and the naughtier he is, the more popular he becomes. Ring any bells? You will love him.
London is yet to have a black Mayor or a woman Mayor. So I’ve dreamed up a Mayor who is both. Lorraine Linton, known as the Brixton Girl, is the Labour incumbent. She is, in many ways, everything we want our politicians to be: practical, grounded, honest and, though savvy, determined to do the right thing. But events have conspired to knock the shine off her, and now she is in the political battle of her life. Can she hold off the insurgent, unorthodox Saint?
The 1960s California there lived a band of druggy anarchists - among them Ken Kesey, author of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Next - who called themselves the Merry Pranksters and went round being zany and countercultural. Frightgeist has an underground environmentalist group called the Jolly Japesters, who perform ambitious pranks to ridicule and destabilise the mainstream political process. They’re very good at it. Sort of Extinction Rebellion meets Situationism.
Which brings us to the third lead character in Frightgeist: Mohammad Miah, a young Londoner from Spitalfields, whose aptitude at maths has got him an exciting job in the Square Mile a short walk from his home. Mo is a sweetheart and a dandy. I see him has a latter day Mod: a working-class East Ender going up in the world and hugely pre-occupied with his appearance. Out of the blue, catastrophe strikes him and his family. And suddenly, with a push from the Japesters, he becomes an online icon and a significant presence in the election.
Are you getting the idea? Frightgeist is knockabout, zany, packed with London pop cultural references, especially to movies - The Long Good Friday, My Beautiful Launderette, Blow Up - but it’s also a playful parable of a period of London’s (and Britain’s) history strongly and alarmingly influenced by populism, conspiracism, anxiety and mistrust. And yet it has a romantic side - the London of energy, opportunity and creativity is not dead.
Robert Gordon Clark, a great sage about London, has described Frightgeist as “a fast moving, cleverly constructed modern day political thriller inspired by Dave’s love of London and its politics. Wonderful characters, some no doubt inspired by real politicians!”
J.D. Patterson, co-author of a very good political novel, has just started reading Frightgeist. He’s written on X: “Not very far in, but the quality of the writing is absolutely outstanding.” This is a very big compliment.
It’s very hard to get a self-published, non-mainstream novel even noticed, let alone bought these days, especially if written under an unknown pen name. But, to hell with modesty, Frightgeist is a proper piece of modern London fiction. Surely, that’s a recommendation in itself!
Thank you for bearing with me. Normal service will soon resume. In the meantime, please make me and my alter ego John very happy by buying a copy of Frightgeist, either directly from me via OnLondon.co.uk, from Pages of Hackney bookshop or from the Newham bookshop. Thank you.